Amendments to bank disclosure requirements

Banks are required to issue quarterly disclosure statements covering a wide range of financial and prudential data. The rules under which registered banks are required to make these disclosures are set out in Orders in Council. These Orders in Council have recently been republished with a number of amendments, relating to the disclosure of information about insurance business, rating-contingent limits on exposures to connected persons, credit rating information in respect of large credit exposures, and additional New Zealand balance sheet information by banks that are branches of overseas banks. There are also some miscellaneous amendments to improve the effectiveness of existing disclosure requirements. This article describes the amendments and the reasons for them.